I Take That Back

It appears as if Ellie is not tolerating the acorn squash after all.

One hurdle out of the FPIES box is to stop relying only on how a poopy diaper looks. While I am a certified poop expert, and poop can give you some amazing insight into the body, it is not the sole answer. When dealing with an FPIES reaction, response to a food can be violent fairly quickly. Profuse vomiting and diarrhea are a pretty good sign that something is wrong. But on the path of healing, digestion slows down (like it should) and signs of problems are not just vomit and poo based.

At this point when giving Ellie a new food, we look at the her initial diapers as a sign as to whether or not she is tolerating the fiber. We want to avoid re-damaging her intestines by giving her something too rough for her insides. This is a fact for ALL foods that are not animal based. We can't give her too much or it could be a problem. Her initial exposure to acorn squash showed good poops which means her colitis is healing.

In addition to watching her diaper, we watch the rest of her. After two days the acorn squash began resulting in some wet burps which she said hurt. Regardless of what your doctor has told you, GERD is not normal (even if you are younger than one year of age). Reflux is like...mild, unsuccessful vomit. And since Ellie does not have a hernia, those wet burps meant her body was noticing the new food and the first sign things were not going as well as hoped.

We pulled the acorn squash and rotated back in zucchini to give her body a break... but not in time. The next thing to erupt was her eczema. Her usual spots quickly became cracked skin and blisters, and her personality changed to irritable and high anxiety. This means that her body is still not handling the sugars in food and the sugar is feeding a bacteria overgrowth. This in addition to a night of vomiting beef broth fat and a light colored poo showed that her body was tapped out - not enough enzymes to digest the new food or the high level of beef fat, and possible over load from all the factors.

The result: We have pulled acorn squash.

I did my tantrum crying pity party dance. And now we move on to something else. The hope I hang on to is this: she can't eat it now, but she WILL eat it later. And in the meantime she is fully nourished. But as other FPIES kids begin the healing protocols of GAPS, and I watch them quickly surpass Ellie, I head back to questioning how severe her little immune system damage is and wondering what she needs to get over the hurdle. Is it just more time? The waiting just stinks.